Printed circuit boards from laptops are crushed and transported to these facilities, which can then remove copper, gold and silver. Of the e-waste that is currently recycled, most is carried out by industrial smelters. For PCBs, the materials were seven times more expensive through virgin mining, it found. A study by Zeng, together with professor Jinhui Li from Tsinghua University and professor John Mathews from Macquarie University in Australia, estimated that virgin mining for the metals in a CRT TV was around 13 times more expensive than extracting the metals through urban mining. The subsidy has meant that urban mining is cheaper than virgin mining in China. For example, metal recovered from one cathode ray tube (CRT) television earns US$13, which Zeng says has been vital to the attractiveness of urban mining in China. The Chinese government has promoted collection and extraction of valuable materials from e-waste through subsidies. There’s nothing to compel the consumer to take them to a civic amenity site,” says Susanne Baker, head of environment and compliance at trade body Tech UK. “A lot of small electronics end up in the bin. There, collecting e-waste from consumers is still a major challenge. In Europe, e-waste is regulated by the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which contains measures to improve collection, treatment and recycling of electronics at the end of their life. However, it has also emerged as a leader in urban mining, says Xianlai Zeng, associate professor at the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, who specialises in urban mining and e-waste management.Ĭollecting e-waste is the main obstacle for both developed and developing countries, adds Zeng. Companies lack the incentive to collect and process e-waste as the cost of sourcing raw materials is often cheaper.Ĭhina’s e-waste waste is expected to grow from 15Mt in 2020 to 28.4Mt by 2030 – making it a larger generator of e-waste than the United States or the European Union. Around 4% is thrown in the bin, while 76% is unknown, or recycled under poor conditions for environmental and human health. Two-thirds of the world’s population is covered by laws governing e-waste, but only 20% is recycled properly, according to GEM. The problem is that the vast majority of e-waste is not recycled. The GEM also estimated that nearly 45 million tonnes (Mt) of e-waste was generated globally in 2016, which is expected to grow to 52.2Mt by 2021.Įstimate of global e-waste (million tonnes) The Global E-Waste Monitor (GEM), a project involving the United Nations University, International Telecommunications Union and the International Solid Waste Association, estimated the total value of all raw materials present in e-waste in 2016 at approximately 55 billion euros. Modern electronics contain a variety of precious metals including gold, copper, platinum, and rare earth elements, such as neodymium and tantalum. Meanwhile, mining virgin materials to replace discarded products generates more pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.īut the value of e-waste as a resource is growing. Our old phones, laptops and TVs often end up in landfills or in unregulated reprocessing, polluting air, soil and water as toxic materials seep out. The next stage of the research is to team up with a geoscientist who is interested in developing a biological method using bacteria to dissolve metals, which could be combined with the chemical method.Īs the world becomes increasingly high-tech, a huge environmental problem is piling up. The team is aiming to make a process that is more environmentally friendly than smelting, which is the most common way of recycling phones, but which is very energy intensive, he adds. “All electronics contain lots of valuable metals, and we really should be recycling them because it takes a lot of effort and energy to get them out of the ground and separate them from other materials,” says Love. The professor’s team is developing a new compound that can be used to separate gold from other elements in a mobile phone. This can also avoid the extraction of new materials. The digital junk people throw away offers a huge and valuable resource if the metals can be recovered and recycled through what’s known as “urban mining”. His focus is on using chemistry to recover valuable and toxic metals from old technology. Love is head of inorganic chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In fact, an estimated 7% of gold in circulation around the world is contained in the circuitry of electronic devices, he points out. One tonne of gold ore contains around 1-5 grams of pure gold – but a tonne of mobile phones contains upwards of 300 grams, explains Professor Jason Love. Gold is the most valuable metal in a phone.
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